The Forgotten Village
by Nixi Stasia
Summary: A newspaper article reminds Flora of where she came from. One shot.


**Disclaimer: I do not own Professor Layton, St Mystere, or Flora's hair ribbon. Ownership belongs rightfully to Level 5.**

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The Forgotten Village

It was a lazy Sunday morning in the Triton household. A typical type of morning for that of a Saturday in that particular household. And it was deserved.

Five days a week, those days being the usual Monday to Friday, would be taken over by work schedules, school runs and late evenings. Luke would arise early to drive to the local veterinary surgery, where he had recently been promoted to Head Vet, after the previous Head had retired. He would return home late, some evenings as with the increased paycheque the promotion had promised, an increased amount of responsibilities and paperwork had also been guaranteed. There was, however, the plus that Luke was now in charge of the timetable and now could schedule his own hours, meaning that unless there was the case of a co-worker's holiday or sickness, Luke would take his two days off a week on the weekend, to match the rest of his families schedule.

Flora worked as a freelance lecturer on Anthropology, at Universities. As a writer for the magazine Discoveries Weekly, Flora was treated as a Guest Speaker at the talks she did for undergraduate students. She would be booked into three of four Universities and colleges a week and was currently in high demand, having a recent article of hers, which was about folktales, myths and legends, mentioned the Pandora's Box and her experience and firsthand knowledge of the box. Each talk would last perhaps three of four hours and would include a question and answer session, before Flora would drive to Brenda and Clark's, to pick up her and Luke's eighteen month year old daughter, Violet. By the time they arrived home, their elder child and only son, Augustus, aged eleven, would be home watching television (no matter how many times Luke and Flora told him to always do his homework first before turning on the TV).

Luke would be home by eight at the latest, however, by this point, dinner had been eaten and Violet would be in bed. Little family time was experienced during the weekdays.

This meant that Saturdays would consist of a busy, but fun family afternoon, to the zoo, or a park, or an ice-skating rink. This would then leave the families exhausted and Sunday would then be spent playing board games, walks in the local park, Augustus (hopefully) doing his homework and perhaps a bit of cleaning or a trip to the local supermarket if necessary. A traditional Sunday roast would then take place, which Brenda and Clark, and sometimes the Professor, too, would attend. Sunday was a relaxing and pleasant day to end the week with.

All in all, the Triton household was a lucky and happy household, no matter how busy.

Luke Triton was pondering on this fact as he read through the morning paper, as he sat at the dining table with his cup of tea. The article wasn't particularly interesting. Politics. Some scandal that could be nothing, or could be everything. Luke didn't always keep up. Being the gentleman he was raised to be, he wasn't one for gossip. He turned the page to read the next article. He thought nothing of the title, but then he began to read and... He read some more, each sentence was read quicker than the last until he was missing out every "the" "and" "a" and "it" and merely scanning for details. He'd barely even finished the article before standing up and heading for the living room.

"Flora," he said, upon pushing the ajar door further open, to see Violet pulling out Flora's hair ribbon as the two sat on the living room carpet. He paused and forced a smile.

"What is it?" She winced, gently removing the toddler's grasped fingers from her pink ribbon, which was still her signature hair piece.

"Gah!" Squealed Violet in response.

Luke paused, before holding out the newspaper.

"You might want to read this, dear," he said with a rather solemn expression.

Flora frowned and scooped up the toddler as she stood. She approached him and they swapped the toddler for the newspaper. Taking the paper into her hands, Flora saw the title of the article which she assumed Luke had wanted her to read. His expression had concerned her and she was worried for what she was about to find out in the newspaper article titled:

 _Mysterious Village Discovered_

 _On Friday evening, a family, who had found themselves lost whilst on a journey to Cornwall for weekend break, made a startling unexpected discovery in the middle of a woodland valley._

 _The family came across the gates to a village and decided to enter in order to ask for directions, however upon entering they found what appeared to be a very quiet village. They entered the first establishment they saw and were shocked to find the owner to be, what they assumed to be, dead. Upon calling emergency services, which located the whereabouts using top of the range GPS satellite technology, however, the owner was found to be an inactive robot._

 _Upon further investigation, the authorities were startled to find that the village was full of inactive robots. The village, which could be found on no map, had no living people inside of it and experts can't say if the village had ever received outside villagers or not, however the material made to build the robots suggests that the village is approximately forty years old._

 _This discovery has surprised and confused many experts as to how a village has remained undiscovered for such a long time. Many theories were beginning to surface between police, before the remains of a human, male body were found in a room filled with engineering and mechanical devices. It is currently suspected that this man, whose identity is unknown, built this village and was the creator of the villages citizens. The man is assumed to have died between ten and twelve years ago of natural causes, which would have resulted in the breakdown of this village._

 _The purpose of this village, which is fit with a theme park, a manor house, a river, shops and an inn, remains unknown. Experts are continuing to research the situation._

"Oh my... Bruno..." Flora remained still and closed her eyes.

Noticing she was trembling, Luke, who still had Violet in his arms, approached her.

"I'm so sorry, love..." he said with a sigh.

"It... It's okay," Flora swallowed and opened her eyes. They were brimming tears. "I shouldn't have expected anything more. Of course... Of course, Bruno wouldn't live forever... Everyone... Everyone would stop eventually."

"I know it's a shock," Luke said, as Flora made her way to the settee and sit down.

"It is, yes..." Flora nodded. "I really... I wasn't expecting that. I haven't even thought about St Mystere in a long time. For years, even. I've been so busy with my life now... I've not even thought about any of it. I just assumed St Mystere would always be there..."

It was at that point which the tears began to fall. Comfortingly, Luke put his arm around her, as Violet scuttled over between the two and pulled herself onto Flora's lap. Knowing her Mother was upset, Violet curled up on her lap.

"Hello, lovely girl," Flora said fondly, with a sniff, gently stroking the infant girl's hair. "See, I named my two children after my parents, but I forgot about where I came from."

"You didn't forget, Flora. You just becam distracted. You've been in London more than you ever were in St Mystere. It's understandable. You've done nothing wrong, dear," Luke reassured.

"And more than I ever will be. I can never go back, now. Not to what it used to be, anyway," Flora said and then sighed. "I always knew it would come to this. Deep down, I knew that St Mystere wouldn't last forever. It couldn't. It never could."

Luke smiled sadly.

"I suppose, I just can't forget it ever again, can I? I suppose I must think about it every day," Flora said.

"I think that sounds to be a nice little tribute," Luke replied.

"And I suppose I better contact the authorities. Tell them about what the purpose of St Mystere really is," Flora said, a faint smile on her face. "It's been a secret long enough. Another mystery that Professor Layton solved. It's about time he got some credit for that, don't you think?"

"If you think so, but I can remember what the Professor said. He didn't want people making a spectacle over you," Luke said. His protective husband like behaviour coming into play.

Flora grinned. "Oh, not to worry about that. Maybe I can write an article of my own on that mysterious village?"

And that was exactly what she did.

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 **AN: I wanted to make this a lot more detailed and emotional than I've ended up doing. Not exactly out of laziness, but I suppose because I'm just happy with it like this? I feel like it's said all it can do.**

 **I hope you enjoyed this. I've had the idea for a while and finally got around to writing it... I have a long list of one shot ideas that I still need to do though. Hmm? New Years Resolution perhaps?**

 **Speaking of such, happy new year everyone! I hope this year brings you happiness, health and most importantly, the Lady Layton game! :P**

 **Nikki~**


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